One of the most fun decks to build inMagic: The Gathering’s Commander format is a group hug deck. With cards that provide benefits to all players, not just yourself, group hug decks try to help all players in the match until they put themselves in a position to win the game. These benefits can be used to secure alliances with your opponents or can be used to turn your opponent’s attention to each other instead of you.
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Some of the best group hug cards provide card advantage to your opponents while giving you a bigger boost. This incremental increase of value over your opponents helps everyone feel good, but you slowly take the lead in a game.
10Rootweaver Druid
Some of the best group hug cards are those with asymmetrical benefits for you and your opponents. Rootweaver Druid is one of those cards, letting players search for up to three extra basic lands when it comes into play, under the condition that one of them has to go to you.
Sure, each of your opponents gets an additional two lands this turn, but you’re getting an extra three if all your opponents choose to search this way. While you have to wait until your next turn to put those extra lands to good use, Rootweaver Druid is a fun way to help all players.
9Secret Rendezvous
Not every card in your group hug deck needs to provide huge game-changing effects, sometimes they can be a little more personal. Dubbed ‘King Maker’ effects by players, these cards oftentimes give just one opponent a boost in card advantage or power to help them quickly take out your other two opponents.
Secret Rendezvous can help you negotiate with your opponents tosee who wants to draw a few extra cardsin exchange for political favors or other benefits over your other opponents.
8Temple Bell
There are plenty of ways to draw additional cards in group hug decks but Temple Bell is perhaps the fairest and most equitable way to do it. The biggest issue with other cards that provide additional draw effects for your opponents is that the player to your left, the player whose turn other additional draw effects would help first, has access to the extra cards first, giving them an advantage over your other opponents.
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Temple Bell circumnavigates this situation by letting you choose when everyone gets to draw a card. Technically, you don’t actually get around this disparity of card advantage, you just get to redirect it to you so you have access to extra cards first and during your own turn.
7Excavation Technique
Group hug decks aren’t always about giving all players an advantage, sometimes you have to take something away too. Excavation Technique lets you destroy any nonland permanent of your choice, giving the owner two Treasure tokens.
What makes Excavation Technique great is you can team up with an opponent, promising not to target one of their permanents so that you can copy Excavation Technique twice, gaining an extra copy for yourself and one for your opponent. Your opponent’s copy will always resolve first, so keep that in mind when negotiating who you want to target. It also helps keep them in check if they choose to go against the terms you lay out on who to target with your two copies of the spell.
6Hypergenesis
If you’re looking for an easy way to help everyone cheat in a bunch of creatures, lands, artifacts, or enchantments, then Hypergenesis is the way to go. For just three mana you can set Hypergenesis aside for three turns with suspend counters on it, building up an optimal hand for when it resolves.
It is almost guaranteed that someone is going to have some sort of wildly powerful card put into play, but once that happens you can create a new target for the other two opponents to single out.
5Heartwood Storyteller
Heartwood Storyteller is an interesting card as it is a group hug-themed card whose pace is set by your opponents. You don’t have to do anything to get Heartwood Storyteller going, your opponents just have to cast noncreature spells tolet everyone else draw cards. Your mileage out of this card is also dependent on the type of decks your opponents are playing as well, but seeing how any noncreature spell will trigger Heartwood Storyteller you’ll all but guaranteed to draw a few cards before your next turn.
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Heartwood Storyteller will, of course, trigger off of the noncreature spells you cast as well so keep that in mind in case you’re running a more spell-heavy group hug deck.
4Edric, Spymaster Of Trest
While Edric makes a pretty good commander, he is oftentimes a better inclusion in your group hug deck. With Edric in play, when a creature damages one of your opponents, that creature’s controller gets to draw a card.
This ability will only trigger if a creature hits an opponent, not you, highly incentivizing your opponents to attack anyone else other than you to get those extra cards. With Edric out, you can keep the pressure off of you and keep your opponents working with and against each other to draw cards.
3Tempt With Discovery
Another card that provides tons of asymmetrical benefits to you and your opponents is Tempt with Discovery. For four mana, you get to search your library for any land card and put it directly into play - not even just a basic land, any land; then, each of your opponents can do the same.
What makes Tempt with Discovery so good is that for each opponent that grabs a land this way,you get to search for another land and put it into play. Tempt with Discovery can net you an extra three lands this way, accelerating you ahead of your opponents and letting you tutor up some of your utility lands.
2Rites Of Flourishing
Rites Of Flourishing is a card that does it all for a group hug deck. This relatively cheap enchantment lets players draw an extra card at the start of their turn while also letting everyone play an extra land during their turn, all for just three mana.
This type of universal benefit helps accelerate all players ahead in turns, both in how much of their deck they’re seeing from the extra card draw and also in helping them cast more and more spells with their extra lands. Rites Of Flourishing pairs well with other like Heartwood Storyteller where you benefit from their extra card casting capabilities.
1Selvala, Explorer Returned
A powerful commander in its own right, Selvala, Explorer Returned is a fantastic group hug card. Selvala’s ability does a lot of things for being relatively straightforward. First, it reveals a ton of information about what is going into your opponent’s hands by revealing the top card of all player’s libraries. Then, you gain mana and life for each nonland card on top.
After that, everyone gets to draw that card. With just one tap ability you gained knowledge of what all your opponent’s next play might be, added up to three green mana, gained up to three life, and drew one card.
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